National Geographic HD available only to those customers that subscribe to the Digital Bonus Package (excludes Digital gateway customers).

What is a "Digital gateway customer"?

I have the most basic service available to still get HD (I believe limited basic + expanded). So I only get up to channel 70, plus the HD channels.

update: ok I poked around their site more.. honestly, it couldn't be more confusing.

I am a "Digital gateway customer" - I pay $6 for digital service. so in addition to my basic + limited service, I also get all the HD channels - except for National Geographic (NGHD) as that is now part of the "Digital bonus channels" (see below0.

I just ran into a snag. They couldn't activate HBO/SHOWTIME. So they want to send a tech out. Scheduled for Wed since I always take the evening slot. We'll see what happens then.

Call them back and escalate. There is NOTHING a tech in your house is going to do to get those two channels that can't be done over the phone. Your cards are most likely not paired/validated correctly.

Cox Phoenix charged me that originally but later changed it. I posted the 'updated' charges a little while back:

I have their High speed Internet, phone service (basic 3 features), & Digital cable (no premiums) with only one of my S3s with cablecards and I now pay $118 and change a month.

The $12x charge was from when I was paying the multiple gateway fees.

I expect another set of cable cards for S3 #2 to cost me $11/mo + the ridiculous install fee.

I am in the Phoenix area as well. Is this what you pay every month for digital cable? Just $31? I already have Cox's phone and HSI, I haven't subscribed to their CATV as it is a bit of a ripoff though (been with D*, getting ready to drop them though.)

I called Cox a few weeks ago and they quoted me at $56 a month, plus the cablecard, plus the "digital gateway." And what is that variety tier? Is that obligatory or optional? And do they have M-cards in the valley yet?

I am in the Phoenix area as well. Is this what you pay every month for digital cable? Just $31? I already have Cox's phone and HSI, I haven't subscribed to their CATV as it is a bit of a ripoff though (been with D*, getting ready to drop them though.)

I called Cox a few weeks ago and they quoted me at $56 a month, plus the cablecard, plus the "digital gateway." And what is that variety tier? Is that obligatory or optional? And do they have M-cards in the valley yet?

I pay $118 and change for all three. The bundle discounts mainly discount the cable which on the bill makes it look like I pay $31 for cable TV. In my case it's cheaper to have digital cable than it is to have analog cable due to the bundle discounts.

Keep in mind the rate I'm paying is the $99/mo + equipment rate and this rate has since increased to $109/mo. They grandfathered me at the old rate.

Cox has their programming broke down into tiers for sports / movies or variety. Variety has MTV / DIY / kids programming. You can see the tier broke out here:

I pay $118 and change for all three. The bundle discounts mainly discount the cable which on the bill makes it look like I pay $31 for cable TV. In my case it's cheaper to have digital cable than it is to have analog cable due to the bundle discounts.

Keep in mind the rate I'm paying is the $99/mo + equipment rate and this rate has since increased to $109/mo. They grandfathered me at the old rate.

Cox has their programming broke down into tiers for sports / movies or variety. Variety has MTV / DIY / kids programming. You can see the tier broke out here:

You get to choose one tier with your digital cable and they charge if you want more tiers.

I haven't heard of M cards in PHX yet - but I imagine they are coming soon if they aren't already available.

Eww...G4 and Logo - two channels I don't want my money going to...but then again, that is the better of those other tiers, unless you're into sports, as the movie tier channels all have commercials and are edited (bleh.) Then again, I can't think of any of the channels in any of the digital tiers that I am interested in, except for a few of the premiums, and a few of the HD ones.

But at least you don't have to pay extra for those HD channels...Is that discovery channel the same as the regular one, only HD? Or does it have alternate programming?

Also, what options does that package include for the phone, and what internet tier is that?

But at least you don't have to pay extra for those HD channels...Is that discovery channel the same as the regular one, only HD? Or does it have alternate programming?

Also, what options does that package include for the phone, and what internet tier is that?

DiscoveryHD has different programming. It shows more documentary stuff with the popular shows mixed in (American Chopper etc). I highly recommend 'Alien Insect' .

The Phone package is the Connections 60 package. Their website sucks so you can't really tell what you get with this. I can tell you I get caller ID, call waiting, call waiting ID etc but I do not get and could not get Voicemail without an additional fee. It also includes 60 minutes of long distance every month that we never use. We use the cell phones and I have an IP phone in my home office for free long distance calling.

The Internet is the 'standard' $45 plan. It's 7 Meg down and 512k up. It included powerboost which basically makes your downloads peak at up to 15M down. No complaints here.

DiscoveryHD has different programming. It shows more documentary stuff with the popular shows mixed in (American Chopper etc). I highly recommend 'Alien Insect' .

Mythbusters?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shawn95GT

The Phone package is the Connections 60 package. Their website sucks so you can't really tell what you get with this. I can tell you I get caller ID, call waiting, call waiting ID etc but I do not get and could not get Voicemail without an additional fee. It also includes 60 minutes of long distance every month that we never use. We use the cell phones and I have an IP phone in my home office for free long distance calling.

Odd...I have the very very basic phone package and that includes voicemail.

Call them back and escalate. There is NOTHING a tech in your house is going to do to get those two channels that can't be done over the phone. Your cards are most likely not paired/validated correctly.

I'll probably do that this evening. I wasn't seeing any new EMM's so I'm guessing they were hitting the wrong card. Original install was for two cards, but when the "tech" finally figured out that yes, an M card will work as an M card, he took the second with him. However they had me down for two cards on my bill. I only have a single Card in my system.

Hello, first post here. I had the cable guy here last week for over 4 hours trying to install the 2nd single stream card. After two additional truck deliveries of cards, he was able to finally get the unit working. I've been happy overall (with the exception of the occasional macroblocking and audio dropouts; hopefully they will update the unit with a software fix) but today the unit began displaying the 480i LED full on regardless of what format mode I set the unit in. Anyone else having this problem? I've rebooted, reinitialyzed, and everything else I can think of. Other than this, I'm super happy with it.

Had cable cards installed yesterday (Thursday, Aug 23rd), everything went great! The tech (Nick) showed up in the time window agreed to. Card 1 no problems, Card 2 did not work on the first try but Nick inserted a different card and TADA it worked. Only took about a total of 30 minutes. Everything was working great, I went through and did a Set up after Nick was gone, set up my channel list and set all my season passes..ect…Great, I have my Tivo back…BUT THEN IT HAPPENED! While recording 1 program and the second program was scheduled to start it (the Tivo box) started acting up…like it was a signal turner, and then started losing channels, some would come in but not others, also starting experiencing tiling. So I have a call into Cox to come out Saturday…
The second tech came out on Saturday, Aug 25th and replaced card 2, said that the card was not working because of an inventory authentication issue, which I guess means that each card in each truck is assigned to that Tech, but the card that our tech Nick used was never issued to him, therefore could not be authenticated.
So far everything is working great …however, we are still experiencing tiling, which Larry (the second tech) said is a common problem in our area, and that “they are working on it”….but for some reason does not seem to happen on the Cox DVR nearly as bad...?
I do think that it is very important to do a couple of Guided Set Up’s before having the cable cards installed.

No, you can't do a scan with cable cards, just go to messages and setting/setting/channels/channel list and unselect the channels you don't get...takes some time to do and if you have to re-set your Tivo box you'll have to do it again...I learned the hard way
Good luck!

I was right, wrong host-id on their end. I called last night, got a guy on the phone explained that I suspected the wrong ID and why. So I read it to him, hear the clickity-clack of him typing and then a "yeah, that's what we have here" all the sudden EMM's, and the new channels started working.

Now with the new channels, I had to go into the guide settings and turn them on. Yes, with cable cards you have to do it manually, it's not hard as the whole lineup is there, it's just selecting which ones you want. The easiest way to do it is give it to your 10yo, have him select all, then you go back and remove what you don't get.

Now for the 500GB upgrade and I'm set for now. May have to take a look at the board, noticed in one of the pics there was a soldermask for another SATA cable. 2 internal 1 external? We'll see... Problem is finding a time frame to do it, as weekends are free, but that's when all the racing is happening.

Now with the new channels, I had to go into the guide settings and turn them on. Yes, with cable cards you have to do it manually, it's not hard as the whole lineup is there, it's just selecting which ones you want. The easiest way to do it is give it to your 10yo, have him select all, then you go back and remove what you don't get.

I got an unsolicited call from Cox, Fairfax, Va, just to let me know I would lose several channels on cable card in September, and that I wouldn't be receiving any more new HD channels as they were added. Not sure why they called me, but I hope FIOS gets here soon. I don't want to have to go back to Directv again.

I got an unsolicited call from Cox, Fairfax, Va, just to let me know I would lose several channels on cable card in September, and that I wouldn't be receiving any more new HD channels as they were added. Not sure why they called me, but I hope FIOS gets here soon. I don't want to have to go back to Directv again.

I got an unsolicited call from Cox, Fairfax, Va, just to let me know I would lose several channels on cable card in September, and that I wouldn't be receiving any more new HD channels as they were added. Not sure why they called me, but I hope FIOS gets here soon. I don't want to have to go back to Directv again.

Yeah I had the same call last week. I'm looking for FIOS in my area too. Since Cox only will offer the Digital Cable box to give me all the HD stations.

I assume that the call from Cox Fairfax, VA means that Cox is shifting all of its new HD channels, which come online after 1 September, to SDV in that market. Thus, I assume that it’s going to happen in other markets, too. I have a TiVo Series3, which I bought about eight months ago, in order to get rid of the SA 8300HD and its awful SARA software I had been using since 2004.

If Cox OKC does the same thing in OKC as Cox is doing in Fairfax they will lose me as a subscriber for everything but high speed Internet. I will shift my TV service to D* and my telephone service to AT&T.

My son lives in the Milwaukee area and is a D* subscriber. He just got an HR20 HD DVR from D* and it’s really good, exponentially better than the SARA equipped SA 8300HD boxes. I can live with “HD Lite” not to have to go back to the execrable SARA software. I have an 8300HD still connected to my second HD set so I can attest that it’s just as primitive and limited now as it was eight months ago. I don’t know who to be the maddest at over this, the cable companies for subverting their mandate to support CableCARD technology or at TiVo for – apparently – selling me a $1,000 (box plus subscription) paperweight.

I read that Time Warner is shifting to SDV for all of its HD channels in some, if not all, markets in September, so I guess that SDV is inevitable here, too. If so, Goodbye Cox OKC and TiVo. Man, this STINKS.

See also this thread. If some of the major cable companies are indeed moving all HD to SDV, this REALLY puts the heat on TiVo to get the USB dongle in service yesterday, as this would make the S3 essentially useless otherwise, other than for OTA HD.

Only if all of the HD went SDV. SDV is pointless for the cable companies if they put popular channels on SDV.

In OKC, at least, Cox has all of its HD channels, including retransmitted locals, in the upper tier, which require either a cable company digital box or CableCARDs to decode. Thus, it seems to me that shifting all HD to SDV should be an easy decision for the cable companies, even if it does gut S3 and THD owners, as well as the owners of HDTVs that are not two way devices. Indeed, TWC has already announced that next month they will be doing just that in some markets. Considering how much bandwidth SDV would free up for the cable companies, what would the downside of not using it be for them?

I am very much afraid that SDV is a done deal and the only questions left are how soon all HD channels will move to SDV and whether TiVo can figure out a fix for the problem in our lifetime.

I had all sorts of trouble with Cox Fairfax and the cablecards. It took 5 attempts to get my Tivo to work, and its worth it, and my wife is happy so I am happy!

The problem was that I could always get the card in slot 1 to work, but never the card in slot 2 to work. The would bring out more and more cards, even 2007 cards and still no go with slot 2.

The last time the cox dude came out, I had a suggestion for him, which he was game for and it worked.

I am posting this in the hopes this does help someone else with this type of problem. Would be interested to see if it works for other people as well.

I had two 2007 cards, slot 1 works great, slot 2, no go. The cox tech brought out 2 2006 cards, I was like wtf, but thought we have to use what they got..

I took out both cards, move card from slot 2 out of the way so we would not mess up and reuse it, and placed the card from slot 1 in a safe place. I had him place one of the 2006 card that he brought out into slot 1, registered it, and it worked fine! then I had him take the card from slot 1, which I knew was working and place that in slot 2 and register it with slot 2 and it worked too! I do not have an explanation on why this worked, but I am a happy tivo HD user who is no longer under threat from his wife to return it!!

Anyone else try this, or anyone else who has these problems try it and let us know if it works for you too.

Problems, problems. After the cable tech spent 3 1/2 hours installing the cable cards and getting the THD up and running and living with the pixalation and audio issues for a week, I came home yesterday to find all of the front panel lights on, and no signal to the TV. Reset the box and finally got a signal going to the TV but the THD jumps out of the configure step right back to live TV. All front panel lights remain stuck on.

Going to try exchanging for a new THD, and starting over. Wish me luck. I'm really trying to like this thing...

Problems, problems. After the cable tech spent 3 1/2 hours installing the cable cards and getting the THD up and running and living with the pixalation and audio issues for a week, I came home yesterday to find all of the front panel lights on, and no signal to the TV. Reset the box and finally got a signal going to the TV but the THD jumps out of the configure step right back to live TV. All front panel lights remain stuck on.

Going to try exchanging for a new THD, and starting over. Wish me luck. I'm really trying to like this thing...

I had all sorts of trouble with Cox Fairfax and the cablecards. It took 5 attempts to get my Tivo to work, and its worth it, and my wife is happy so I am happy!

The problem was that I could always get the card in slot 1 to work, but never the card in slot 2 to work. The would bring out more and more cards, even 2007 cards and still no go with slot 2.

The last time the cox dude came out, I had a suggestion for him, which he was game for and it worked.

I am posting this in the hopes this does help someone else with this type of problem. Would be interested to see if it works for other people as well.

I had two 2007 cards, slot 1 works great, slot 2, no go. The cox tech brought out 2 2006 cards, I was like wtf, but thought we have to use what they got..

I took out both cards, move card from slot 2 out of the way so we would not mess up and reuse it, and placed the card from slot 1 in a safe place. I had him place one of the 2006 card that he brought out into slot 1, registered it, and it worked fine! then I had him take the card from slot 1, which I knew was working and place that in slot 2 and register it with slot 2 and it worked too! I do not have an explanation on why this worked, but I am a happy tivo HD user who is no longer under threat from his wife to return it!!

Anyone else try this, or anyone else who has these problems try it and let us know if it works for you too.

I am on Cox Phoenix and had a similar experience. After 6 cards in slot 2 of the THD - none of which worked, we (I use the term loosely since the Tech was somewhat clueless) tried a card from my 65" Mits TV (which had been previously registered and was working), and lo and behold, it worked. I think others should take a look at this way of installing the second card to see if this really is an alternative way to get slot 2 working.